Sonda New horizons, flyby a Plutão

[Albifriorento]

E aí estão as primeiras imagens, entre elas, uma imagem de Hidra, uma das luas de Plutão.

https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/hydra-emerges-from-the-shadows

Since its discovery in 2005, Pluto's moon Hydra has been known only as a fuzzy dot of uncertain shape, size, and reflectivity. Imaging obtained during New Horizons' historic transit of the Pluto-Charon system and transmitted to Earth early this morning has definitively resolved these fundamental properties of Pluto's outermost moon. Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) observations revealed an irregularly shaped body characterized by significant brightness variations over the surface. With a resolution of 2 miles (3 kilometers) per pixel, the LORRI image shows the tiny potato-shaped moon measures 27 miles (43 kilometers) by 20 miles (33 kilometers).

Like that of Charon, Hydra's surface is probably covered with water ice, the most abundant ice in the universe. Observed within Hydra's bright regions is a darker circular structure with a diameter of approximately 6 miles (10 kilometers). Hydra's reflectivity (the percentage of incident light reflected from the surface) is intermediate between that of Pluto and Charon. "New Horizons has finally nailed the basic physical properties of Hydra," says Hal Weaver, New Horizons Project Scientist and LORRI science operations lead. "We're going to see Hydra even better in the images yet to come."

Hydra was approximately 400,000 miles away from New Horizons when the image was acquired.

Image Credit: NASA-JHUAPL-SwRI

Charon
https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/charon-s-surprising-youthful-and-varied-terrain

Remarkable new details of Pluto’s largest moon Charon are revealed in this image from New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), taken late on July 13, 2015 from a distance of 289,000 miles (466,000 kilometers).

A swath of cliffs and troughs stretches about 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) from left to right, suggesting widespread fracturing of Charon’s crust, likely a result of internal processes. At upper right, along the moon’s curving edge, is a canyon estimated to be 4 to 6 miles (7 to 9 kilometers) deep.

Mission scientists are surprised by the apparent lack of craters on Charon. South of the moon’s equator, at the bottom of this image, terrain is lit by the slanting rays of the sun, creating shadows that make it easier to distinguish topography. Even here, however, relatively few craters are visible, indicating a relatively young surface that has been reshaped by geologic activity.

In Charon’s north polar region, a dark marking prominent in New Horizons’ approach images is now seen to have a diffuse boundary, suggesting it is a thin deposit of dark material. Underlying it is a distinct, sharply bounded, angular feature; higher resolution images still to come are expected to shed more light on this enigmatic region.

The image has been compressed to reduce its file size for transmission to Earth. In high-contrast areas of the image, features as small as 3 miles (5 kilometers) across can be seen. Some lower-contrast detail is obscured by the compression of the image, which may make some areas appear smoother than they really are. The uncompressed version still resides in New Horizons’ computer memory and is scheduled to be transmitted at a later date.

The image has been combined with color information obtained by New Horizons’ Ralph instrument on July 13.

New Horizons traveled more than three billion miles over nine-and-a-half years to reach the Pluto system.

Image Credit: NASA-JHUAPL-SwRI

Plutão, e as suas montanhas de gelo capazes de envergonhar a nossa S. da Estrela, com 3 500m de altitude
https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/the-icy-mountains-of-pluto

New close-up images of a region near Pluto’s equator reveal a giant surprise: a range of youthful mountains rising as high as 11,000 feet (3,500 meters) above the surface of the icy body.

The mountains likely formed no more than 100 million years ago -- mere youngsters relative to the 4.56-billion-year age of the solar system -- and may still be in the process of building, says Jeff Moore of New Horizons’ Geology, Geophysics and Imaging Team (GGI). That suggests the close-up region, which covers less than one percent of Pluto’s surface, may still be geologically active today.

Moore and his colleagues base the youthful age estimate on the lack of craters in this scene. Like the rest of Pluto, this region would presumably have been pummeled by space debris for billions of years and would have once been heavily cratered -- unless recent activity had given the region a facelift, erasing those pockmarks.

“This is one of the youngest surfaces we’ve ever seen in the solar system,” says Moore.

Unlike the icy moons of giant planets, Pluto cannot be heated by gravitational interactions with a much larger planetary body. Some other process must be generating the mountainous landscape.

“This may cause us to rethink what powers geological activity on many other icy worlds,” says GGI deputy team leader John Spencer of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo.

The mountains are probably composed of Pluto’s water-ice “bedrock.”

Although methane and nitrogen ice covers much of the surface of Pluto, these materials are not strong enough to build the mountains. Instead, a stiffer material, most likely water-ice, created the peaks. “At Pluto’s temperatures, water-ice behaves more like rock,” said deputy GGI lead Bill McKinnon of Washington University, St. Louis.

The close-up image was taken about 1.5 hours before New Horizons closest approach to Pluto, when the craft was 478,000 miles (770,000 kilometers) from the surface of the planet. The image easily resolves structures smaller than a mile across.

Image Credit: NASA-JHUAPL-SwRI

E parece que Plutão já tem namorada, chama-se Ceres http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/ , como podem ver na página de abertura da Sonda Dawn, Ceres love (coração) Pluto. Desculpem, mas não consegui colocar a imagem, vão ter que clicar no link.

 

[Orion]

 

[Albifriorento]

Boas.

Parece que descobriram mais coisas interessantes nos sistema de Plutão, está prevista uma conferência de imprensa para amanhã dia 17, mais imagens serão libertadas durante a conferência de imprensa.
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/...-science-findings-at-july-17-nasa-tv-briefing

Charon:

This new image of an area on Pluto's largest moon Charon has a captivating feature -- a depression with a peak in the middle, shown here in the upper left corner of the inset. The image shows an area approximately 240 miles (390 kilometers) from top to bottom, including few visible craters. The image was taken at approximately 6:30 a.m. EDT on July 14, 2015, about 1.5 hours before closest approach to Pluto, from a range of 49,000 miles (79,000 kilometers).
Credits: NASA-JHUAPL-SwRI

Edit:
Enquanto não liberam mais imagens, lançaram uma montagem com as fotos de melhor resolução de Plutão, desde a sua descoberta até à chegada da NH.

Parece que uma das fotos está protegida por direitos de autor, por isso, ponho apenas o link da montagem.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/views-of-pluto-through-the-years

 

[LuisFilipe006]

Estranho no fundo negro não se ver uma única estrela.

 

[jorgeanimal]

Estranho no fundo negro não se ver uma única estrela.

Alguém que percebe de fotografia explicar-te-á pormenorizadamente a razão, se não ainda corremos o risco de virem os fanáticos das conspirações dizer que isto é tudo uma fantochada, que foi feito num hangar qualquer no alentejo ahah.

 

[Albifriorento]

Mais um pote de coisas interessantes que foram descobertas.

Tal como um cometa, parece que Plutão também tem uma cauda, formada por Nitrogénio (Azoto) que devido á pouca gravidade de Plutão escapa para o espaço sempre que este passa do estado sólido para o gasoso.
https://www.nasa.gov/nh/pluto-wags-its-tail

Outra coisa engraçada, é o facto que a zona que foi apelidada de coração, parecer ser constituída por monóxido de carbono (CO).
https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/frozen-carbon-monoxide-in-pluto-s-heart

E sem dúvida a imagem do dia, depois das montanhas de Plutão, as planícies de gelo, e que planícies...

A zona corresponde aproximadamente ao centro do coração.
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/...s-frozen-plains-in-the-heart-of-pluto-s-heart

E mais outra lua de Plutão.

https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/homing-in-on-nix-plutos-small-satellite

 

[StormRic]

Estranho no fundo negro não se ver uma única estrela.

A luminosidade do planeta obriga a diminuir a exposição da foto e por isso o brilho das estrelas não é suficiente para ser registado. Só se por acaso estiver alguma estrela de magnitude (brilho) relativamente grande no campo de visão, e estas são raras, é que apareceria na foto. Este campo de visão é também muito restrito pois todas estas imagens são obtidas com tele-objectivas/sensores, uma vez que se pretende aproximar o mais possível a imagem do planeta. Assim o número de estrelas brilhantes que eventualmente podiam ser registadas e apanhadas no campo de visão é ainda menor. Mal comparado com as fotos da Lua, pois a iluminação da Lua pelo Sol é muito superior à de Plutão devido à enorme diferença de distâncias, também quando se pretende ver todos os detalhes com luz correcta na superfície do nosso satélite, as estrelas de fundo desaparecem quase todas.

Repara que igual comentário podia ser feito a respeito das fotos de qualquer outro corpo celeste iluminado pelo Sol. Mesmo assim, Plutão seria efectivamente aquele corpo do sistema solar em que se podia esperar ver estrelas de fundo, devido à fraquíssima luz do Sol àquela distância. O efeito de tele-objectiva e reduzido campo de visão será aqui preponderante, penso eu.

 

[camrov8]

As maquinas são como o olho humano mesmo muito afastado do sol é ainda assim muito brilhante e para evitar a sobre exposição as estrelas deixam de ser visíveis

 

[Orion]

The Long, Strange Trip to Pluto, and How NASA Nearly Missed It

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/19/u...pluto-and-how-nasa-nearly-missed-it.html?_r=0

 

[StormRic]

The Long, Strange Trip to Pluto, and How NASA Nearly Missed It

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/19/u...pluto-and-how-nasa-nearly-missed-it.html?_r=0

empolgante relato!

 

[Albifriorento]

http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/new-horizons-captures-two-of-plutos-smaller-moons

Uma destas luas, Nix, já tinha sido fotografada, volto a postar a foto outra vez:

Edit:
Aliás, já tinham sido as duas fotografadas, a lua que abre esta página, Hidra, é uma das duas nesta foto.

 

[Albifriorento]

A segunda cadeia de Montanhas em Plutão, mesmo no centro do, dito, coração:

http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/nasa-s-new-horizons-finds-second-mountain-range-in-pluto-s-heart

NASA’s New Horizons Finds Second Mountain Range in Pluto’s ‘Heart’

A newly discovered mountain range lies near the southwestern margin of Pluto’s Tombaugh Regio (Tombaugh Region), situated between bright, icy plains and dark, heavily-cratered terrain. This image was acquired by New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on July 14, 2015 from a distance of 48,000 miles (77,000 kilometers) and sent back to Earth on July 20. Features as small as a half-mile (1 kilometer) across are visible.

Pluto’s icy mountains have company. NASA’s New Horizons mission has discovered a new, apparently less lofty mountain range on the lower-left edge of Pluto’s best known feature, the bright, heart-shaped region named Tombaugh Regio (Tombaugh Region).

These newly-discovered frozen peaks are estimated to be one-half mile to one mile (1-1.5 kilometers) high, about the same height as the United States’ Appalachian Mountains. The Norgay Montes (Norgay Mountains) discovered by New Horizons on July 15 more closely approximate the height of the taller Rocky Mountains.

The new range is just west of the region within Pluto’s heart called Sputnik Planum (Sputnik Plain). The peaks lie some 68 miles (110 kilometers) northwest of Norgay Montes.

This newest image further illustrates the remarkably well-defined topography along the western edge of Tombaugh Regio.

“There is a pronounced difference in texture between the younger, frozen plains to the east and the dark, heavily-cratered terrain to the west,” said Jeff Moore, leader of the New Horizons Geology, Geophysics and Imaging Team (GGI) at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. “There’s a complex interaction going on between the bright and the dark materials that we’re still trying to understand.”

While Sputnik Planum is believed to be relatively young in geological terms – perhaps less than 100 million years old - the darker region probably dates back billions of years. Moore notes that the bright, sediment-like material appears to be filling in old craters (for example, the bright circular feature to the lower left of center).

This image was acquired by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on July 14 from a distance of 48,000 miles (77,000 kilometers) and sent back to Earth on July 20. Features as small as a half-mile (1 kilometer) across are visible. The names of features on Pluto have all been given on an informal basis by the New Horizons team.

Image Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI

Entretanto foi convocada mais uma conferência de imprensa para discutir esta imagem.
http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/n...horizons-pluto-science-update-set-for-july-24

 

[Albifriorento]

boas, muita coisa interessante, podem vê-las, como sempre, no site da Nasa https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html , nunca é demais repor o link.

Deixo apenas duas imagens

O gelo, que aprentemente se move, como se glaciares se tratassem.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-horizons-discovers-flowing-ices-on-pluto

E o adeus da New Horizons a Plutão (relaxem, não, foi uma das últimas fotos tiradas, mas a sonda ainda tem muitas mais para enviar).
https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/pluto-s-breathtaking-farewell-to-new-horizons

E os links de mais dois artigos relacionados com esta foto.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/stunning-nightside-image-reveals-pluto-s-hazy-skies
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-new-horizons-team-finds-haze-flowing-ice-on-pluto

EDIT: Chiça, estou mesmo chato, mas não resisti, aqui fica uma foto de Plutão em cor real
https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/global-mosaic-of-pluto-in-true-color

 

[1337]

E essa cor alaranjada deve-se ao quê?

 

[Albifriorento]

Eu já aqui postei um video sobre isso. Em que eles usam Marte como comparação, e depois explicam as diferenças, é só procurar aqui no tópico.

Acho que o video se chama Pluto, the other red world, ou qualquer coisa do género.